Orange outlasts White in UT spring game

AUSTIN — In an epic, windblown affair sure to be remembered for as long as grass grows at Royal Memorial Stadium, the Orange team beat the White 21-7 on Sunday afternoon in the Texas spring football game.

Colt McCoy struggled through a rough afternoon, completing only 11 of 24 passes for 95 yards, although at least five of his throws were dropped. The UT running backs did little to prove the Longhorns will finally have a dependable, every-down back next season, as Fozzy Whittaker and Vondrell McGee combined for three touchdown runs but averaged only 2.9 yards per carry.

For many of the (generously) announced crowd of 44,000, the highlight of the day came after the game, when UT sold squares of grass from the playing field for $20 a pop. Monday, crews will begin work to replace the natural grass with an artificial surface.

But before the sod came up, there were some notable developments. Freshman defensive end Alex Okafor, who played with the first team while Sergio Kindle sat out, showed he will waste little time becoming a force. Ben Alexander and Kheeston Randall looked strong at defensive tackle. Aaron Williams, Malcolm Williams and Deon Beasley all had nice kick and/or punt returns. James Kirkendoll and Brandon Collins reinforced the notion that they are McCoy’s most reliable targets not named Jordan Shipley.

But most of all, Sunday was about the talent and depth of the secondary. In addition to Earl Thomas’ first-half interception against McCoy, Chykie Brown, Aaron Williams, Blake Gideon, Christian Scott, Nolan Brewster and Curtis Brown all played well. After the game Mack Brown said he feels comfortable starting any one of eight players in the secondary, which should be a huge strength for a team playing in a pass-happy conference.

One interesting note from the postgame news conference — inside the UT team room of the Moncrief-Neuhaus building, the Longhorns have a wall marking all of their Southwest Conference, Big 12 and national championships. And in the Big 12 championship section, a new “2008*” has been added, with the asterisk.

For the record, the Longhorns did not play in the Big 12 title game last year. But the controversy about the South division tiebreaker apparently has not subsided.

6 Responses

I’m all for them being pissed about not being in the Big XII Championship last year; heck, I’M pissed that they weren’t in the Big XII Championship last year. Regardless, the BROKEN RULE was the rule that was in place, so they (/we) just need to deal with it. I think that the 2008* thing is down-right silly… I guess that Mack was just so upset and felt like the team did what he asked them to put themselves into the Championship Game and wanted to show appreciation/recognition… I still think that it’s silly…

Would you think it was so silly if it cost you $50,000 or so for not appearing in that game, $100,000 or so for not winning the Big12 Title and and a shot at another $100,000 or so in bonuses for the National title?

You and I are just fans- he’s got money and professional standing tied to that stuff. I’d be bent too. Bob better have ‘em ready in October, I think Mack’s actually startin’ to have a ‘tude.

I could understand if he was upset because they made a mistake enforcing the tie-breaker, but that’s not at all what happened… The tie-breaker rule clearly stated that if a head-to-head tie-breaker couldn’t be used (because of a multi-team tie) then the highest BCS ranked team would advance to the Championship Game… So, he needs to get over it and work to get the rule “fixed” so the 2nd best team in the Big XII South doesn’t make the title game again…

The BCS decided who went to the championship game. Not who was the champion. The Big 12 had a 3 way tie for the championshp of the Big XII. Tech knows it, Texas knows it and OU knows it. Only one team can play in the championship game.

What so hard to fugure out about this? Each had 1 loss in the conference. How many times last year did you hear…”3 way tie” Come on people. BCS didn’t decide the champion…it decided who played in the championship game only.